Catatan Ja'far Tamam

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. 

Saya merasa terhormat kareuna bisa bersama kalian hari ini dalam acara upacara pemberian ijazah di kampus terbaik dunia ini. Saya tidak pernah lulus dari perkuliahan. Saya mengatakan sejujurnya, ini merupakan tempat wisuda terdekat yang pernah saya kunjungi.Hari ini, saya akan menyampaikan kepada kalian 3 cerita dalam hidup saya. Itu saja. Bukan kesepakatan yang besar. Hanya 3 cerita saja. Saya dulu dikeluarkan dari  kampus Reed setelah menjalani perkuliahan enam bulan, akan tetapi saya berdiam di sekitar sana selama 18 bulan sebelum saya benar-benar keluar. Mengapa saya dikeluarkan? Ini semua dimulai sejak sebelum saya dilahirkan.

My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. 

Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. 

Orangtua biologisku ketika menikah tidak menjadi mahasiswa di perkuliahan, dan kemudian ia memutuskan untuk menaruhku di panti untuk diadopsi. Dia merasa saya bisa lebih kuat jika saya diadopsi oleh orang yang pernah mengenyam bangku perkuliahan, maka semua diatur agar aku diadopsi oleh seorang pengacara dan isterinya. 

Selain itu, tatkala saya ditaruh, mereka memutuskan di akhir menit untuk mengadopsi anak perempuan. Maka kemudian orangtua saya, yang berada di waiting list,pada tengah malam menelpon, "Hei,kami punyaanak laki-laki yang tak terduga, kamu ingin mengadopsinya?" Mereka mengatakan, "Ok tentu saja. Ibu biologisku kemudian mendapati bahwa ibu penggantinya ternyata tidak lulus kuliah dan ayah penggantinya juga tidak lulus daari sekolah tinggi. Kemudian ibu biologisku menolak untuk menandatangani kertas adopsi. Dia hanya mengalah hingga beberapa bulan dan akhirnya orangtuaku mengalah ketika orangtuaku berjanji bahwa aku suatu saat akan diberikan kesempatan mengenyam perkuliahan.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

Dan17 tahun kemudian,saya menuju perkuliahan. Tetapi, dengan naifnya saya memilih kampus yang mahal seperti Stanford, dan semua hasilkerja orangtua saya habis karena biaya pendidikan saya.Setelah enam bulan, saya merasa tidak mendapatkan apa-apa di sana. Saya tidak punya ide tentang apa yang akan saya cari dalam hidup ini dan sayatidak ada ide bagaimana kampus bisa menolong saya meringankan angka biaya pendidikan tersebut. Dan di sini saya merasa hanya menghabiskan semua duit orangtua saya saja, yang telah mereka simpan sepanjang hidup mereka. Kemudian, saya memutuskan untuk keluar kampus dan saya yakin itu adalah keputusan terbaik saya. Saya cukup takut kala itu, tapi jika melihat ke belakang saya merasa itulah keputusan terbaik yang pernah saya ambil. Ketika saya keluar dari kampus, saya memberhentikan semua kelas yang tidak saya butuhkan (reqired) dan saya memulai megambil kelas yang menarik untuk saya.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. 

Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtlein a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. 

Ini semua tidak indah sama sekali. Saya tidak memiliki ruang asrama(dormroom), kemudian saya tidur di lantai ruang teman saya. Saya mengembalian botol Coke untuk mendapatkan uang 5$ untuk membeli makan, saya harus berjalan 7 mil menyeberangi kota setiaphari Minggu untuk mendapatkan makanan enak gratis di Candi HareKrishna. Saya mencintai itu semua. Dan saya kerap (much) tersandung (stumbled) saat saya mengikuti keingintahuan dan menghidupkan intuisi saya agar menjadi berharga (priceless) suatu saat nanti. Mari saya berikan padamu satu contoh : Reed College saat itu menawarkan ajakan kelas kaligrafi terbaik di seantero kota.......

Melewati setiap poster yang terpampang di kampus, setiap label dan ahli gambar, sangat bagus diciptakan dari tangan. Karena saya sudah keluar dari kampus dan tidak memiliki kelas formal, saya memutuskan untuk mengambil kelas untuk mendalami hal tersebut. Saya belajr tentang tulisan jenis Sans Serif, tentang memvariasikan sejumlah ruang diantara kombinasi tulisan yang beragam, tentang cara membuat tifografi yang bagus. Ini sangat menarik, bernilai sejarah, bernilai seni dan menjelaskan secara halus (subtlein) bahwa keilmuan tidak bisa digambar. dan saya menemukan keterkejutan. Tak ada satupun harapan bahwa hal ini akan menjadi bakat kehidupanku

But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. 

Tapi sepuluh tahun berikutnya, saat kami merancang komputer Macintosh pertama, ini semua kembali ke saya. Dan kami mulai merancang itu semua ke dalam perangkat Mac. Ini adalah komputer pertama yang menggunakan typografy terbaik. Apabila saya tidak pernah mengalami DO dari kampus, MAC tidak akan pernah punya fons yang sangat indah dan proporsional. Dan, sejak Windows menjiplak Mac, ini seperti mereka tidak memiliki komputer personal. Jika saya tidak DO dari kampus, saya tidak akan berkesempatan mengikuti kelas kaligrafi dan barnagkali PC tidak akan mempunyai typography yang bagus. Tentu, hal ini mustahil untuk menyambungkan relasi kampus saya dulu.

But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. 

Akan tetapi ini sungguh-sungguh terang jika melihat 10 tahun lalu. Dan, kalian jangan memutuskan koneksi kemajuan: kamu bisa menyambung relasi dengan mereka. Maka kamu harus percata bahwa relasi bagaimanapun akan menyambungkan masa depanmu. Kamu harus selalu percaya perihal takdir, kehidupan, karma dan lain sebagainya. Pendekatan ini yang tidak pernah membuat saya menyerah. Dan inilah yang membuat hidup saya berbeda.

My second story is about love and loss.I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. 

When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. 

I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being  successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

Cerita keduaku adalah tentang cinta dan kehilangan. Saya termasuk beruntung, saya menemukan apa yang daya cintai sejak dini. Woz dan saya memulai perintisan Apple sejak saya berumur 20, di garasi rumah ortu saya. Kita bekerja keras, dan dalam 10 tahun Apple berkembang dari yang awalnya berdua di garasi menuju kekayaan 2 miliar USD dengan lebih dari 4000 karyawan. Kita harus saja merilis temuan terbaik kita, the Macintosh, pada tahun2 awal dan saaat itu umur saya baru 30. Dan kemudian saya dipecat. Bayangkan, bagaimana ceritanya kamu bisa dipecat dari tempat yang kamu rintis? 

Kemudian, sementara Apple berkembang, kami di mengajak seseorang yang saya pikir sangat bertalenta agar ia mau bergabung bersama saya, dan itu berjalan sangat baik pada masa2 awal. Akan tetapi kemudian, visi kami goyang (diverged) dan akhirnya kami jatuh (berpisah). Saat kami dalam kondisinya tsb, kursi direktur dipegang dia. Maka pada umur 30 saya keluar. Dan saya benar2 malu. 

Apa yang selama ini saya curahkan berupa kefokusan sepanjang hidup telah hilang, dan saya benar2 kehilangan arah (devasting). Saya benar-benar tidak tahu harus apa selama berbulan2. Saya merasa terlalu membiarkan generasi sebelum saya untuk memberhentikan saya, itu terjadi saat tongkat kepemimpinan berada pada saya.

Saya bertemu dengan David Packard dan Bob Noyce dan saya ya mencoba untuk meminta maaf atas perlakuan buruk saya. Saya benar telah melakukan kegagalan publik dan bahkan an-nissa ya berencana untuk meninggalkan valley. Akan tetapi lambat-laun cahaya mendatangiku. Dan saya ya tetap mencintai takdir ini.

Saya memang diberhentikan/dipecat, tapi saya masih tetap cinta. Dan saya memutuskan untuk memulai lagi. Saya tidak menghiraukan itu selanjutnya, tapi kejadian bahwa saya pernah diberhentikan dari Apple adalah hal terbaik yang pernah terjadi pada saya. Perjalanan yang berat menuju kesuksesan tergantikan dengan cahaya berkilauan saat saya bertindak sebagai pemula lagi, perubahan kecil untuk semuanya. 

Hal ini memberi kebebasan bagiku untuk masuk menuju salah satu periode paling kreatif bagiku. 

Selama lima tahun berikutnya, saya memulai perusahaan yang saya beri nama NeXT, perusahaan lain dinamain Pixar, dan saya di dalamnya jatuh cinta dengan sosok yang kelak menjadi istriku. Pixar menjadi komputer pertama di dunia yang mampu menghasilkan fitur pembuatan film animasi, Toy Story', dan sekarang terhitung sebagai studio animasi terbaik di dunia. Dalam momen yang luar biasa, Apple membeli Next, saya kembali ke Apple, dan teknologi yang dikembangkan oleh Next adalah hati/jantung kebangkitan Apple. Dan Laurane dan saya akhirnya memiliki keluarga bersama yang bagus.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle. 

My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

5

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. 

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now. This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very

likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. 

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much 

Lihat video ceramahnya di sini : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i9kcBHX2Nw&list=PULyr-hfWVCKHcZjV5fg3jbw&index=2

Lihat detail transkipnya di sini : https://www.englishspeecheschannel.com/english-speeches/steve-jobs-speech